North Korea Tuesday dismissed once again reports that it was providing nuclear material for Syria as allegations "fabricated by lunatics". Pyongyang's denial followed an attack by Israeli warplanes in northern Syria earlier this month.

The strike was allegedly on a joint Syrian-North Korean nuclear project. "That matter is fabricated by lunatics, so you can ask those lunatics to explain it," North Korea's top nuclear envoy, Kim Kye Gwan, told reporters as he arrived in Beijing for the latest round of talks on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.

Also Tuesday, North Korea accused the US of helping Israel with its nuclear program. Its Communist party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, accused the US of "shutting its eyes" to the nuclear program of its allies while "taking issue with the rights to nuclear activities of other countries for peaceful purposes".

The paper cited US help for Israel's nuclear weapons development as an example. "The US has long actively promoted and cooperated with the Israeli nuclear armament plan," it said.

"They decided to provide assistance to Israel's nuclear development programme. Then the US dispatched nuclear experts to Israel and transferred highly enriched uranium, the key ingredient for nuclear weapons, to them."